Notable Recognition

Congratulations to Beth Gazza for being named the recipient of the UNCW Excellence in e-Learning.

Congratulations to Diane Pastor on becoming a member of the Public Policy Committee of the National Academies of Practice. The National Academies of Practice is a national interprofessional health care organization comprised of 14 academies, of which one is nursing. Pastor is a Scholar/Fellow and is a member of the public policy committee in which she and her colleagues are collaborating on a policy brief in support of interprofessional health care education. Other nursing faculty who are members of the National Academies of Practice are Laurie Badzek, Nancy Ahern and Barbara Lutz.

Congratulations to April Matthias and Matthew Gallek for being selected as participants in the 2017-18 NextUp Leadership Fellowship Program, sponsored by the UNCW Center for Teaching Excellence. Up to 25 UNCW faculty who are interested in cultivating leadership skills and knowledge base are accepted into the program, which offers targeted programming, resources and opportunities for collaborative professional development. It is intended for faculty members who aspire to or are involved in academic leadership but have not served a position within the university of department chair, school director or higher. The purpose is to provide support and resources to build upon the leadership potential within the next group of faculty to assume these positions, without regard to current rank within the university hierarchy.

Faculty member and UNCW alumna Lolita Bryant (’04, ’11M) was recognized in UNCW Magazine (Spring/Summer 2017, p. 22-23) as one of the heirs of Adam Bishop. Bishop once owned a parcel of land that consisted of 43 acres with frontage on NC 132, now College Road, and is the current site of Trask Coliseum. In the late 1950s the Board of Trustees of UNCW (then known as Wilmington College) approached Bryant’s great-great grandfather and other nearby landowners to purchase land to accommodate the college’s growth. In the magazine article, Bryant reflects on the connections between the university and her family and how she hopes to give back to students through an established scholarship, thereby continuing her legacy.